According to Laval’s latest three-year capital investments budget, the city plans to spend $1.38 billion over the next three years on 170 projects and programs, including 159 in 2022.
“The tabling of the PTI is a unique moment since it allows light to be shed on the priorities of our administration,” Mayor Stéphane Boyer said in a statement.
“To no one’s surprise, the projects we are prioritizing are those that will allow us to improve our services to families in the districts, to protect the environment and to assure the security of everyone in Laval.”
The city plans to spend the money each year like this:
- $399.8 million in 2022;
- $510.7 million in 2023;
- $468.7 million in 2024.
The city says the following projects are being scheduled to be implemented over the next few years:
Infrastructures in neighborhoods
These works include major renovations at the Maison André-Benjamin-Papineau near Sainte-Dorothée; the creation of new sports infrastructures for tennis, basketball and the swimming complex; and the creation of new infrastructures in Berthiaume-du-Tremblay Park in Chomedey.
Territorial security
The city will be building new infrastructure for police and fire services, including a new police station for western districts, a new fire station, and the modernization of computerized equipment used for security purposes.
As well, the city plans to implement new measures for traffic calming, and for flood control in areas where rising flood waters are an ongoing concern.
Environnent and ecological transition
The PTI budget also plans some significant measures for the environment and forward ecological transition, including: $58.9 million for the acquisition and improvement of natural spaces, including some near the Berges des Baigneurs, des Goélands and Quatre-Vents.
Sums are also allotted for the improvement and upgrading of Laval’s roadways and streets, and for the improvement of water infrastructure.
Action Laval reacts to city’s 2022 PTI budget
The Action Laval opposition party reacted swiftly last week to the Boyer administration’s 2022 first capital investments budget since coming into office in November last year.
“Being used to simple solutions, the incumbent team that took up the reins of the city last fall is repeating what it learned over the years: to fix a problem, just add money,” city councillors David De Cotis (Saint-Bruno) and Aglaia Revelakis (Chomedey) said in a statement.
As such, they see the latest PTI budget as lacking imagination, although it raises expenses for services.
“The city continues to accumulate important surpluses year after year on the backs of citizens,” De Cotis said. “This is a practice that must stop. This administration should be managing the money of citizens in a responsible manner.”
Noting that the population of Laval has risen by 1.2 per cent since 2019, Action Laval added that during the same period the number of City of Laval employees has gone up by 15.1 per cent, mostly within the administration.
This year alone, staffing has risen by 6.5 per cent, they said. “When they have surpluses, they look for new ways to spend,” said Revelakis. “The application of sound principles of management in order to reduce the tax bills is not part of their wisdom.”
